After 30 school buildings in Newark were found having tall lead levels in their water,a state official said testing the water is not required for schools. Bob Considine, press director at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and said in an email that schools that obtain their water from public water systems,like from the city of Newark "are not required to test for lead under the state or federal secure Water Drinking acts."Unless schools use a private well, the DEP said testing for lead "is voluntarily."This week, or Newark discovered the water in nearly half of the district's school buildings have higher lead levels than they should. School officials said the problem is not the city's water supply,which is subject to testing. The drinking water is contaminated with lead from the lead pipes in the school buildings, which the state says don't need to be tested.
Source: wnyc.org